Ladies newsletter March 2016

Here goes with my first newsletter! First of all, hello to those that don’t know me. I’ve been a member of this amazing club for 5 years, so most of you have probably seen me around at some point. Those that do know me, thanks for all the nice things you have said in the run-up to becoming ladies captain. I’ll certainly do the best I can. Vice-captain Karen Skene has also been a club member for years, we both love the club and want to see it thrive. Many thanks also go to Vicky, as outgoing captain she has given me loads of advice, and left the ladies in great shape!

Next, Rodger’s trail run series begin this weekend, on Sunday 3rd April. Meet at Stour Estuary Nature Reserve car park, Wrabness. Details are on the website at www.gbrc.org.uk. If you haven’t taken part in one of these runs before, please give it a try, they are great fun, usually through scenic countryside that you didn’t realise was so close by, and loads of food afterwards!

I will start at the end of the month, with the sadly cancelled Easter Bunny Doubles. Such a shame the weather beat us this time, but better that than a tree falling on us. The wind was truly dangerous. Des and Theresa put in hours of hard work to organise this event each year, hopefully next year things will go according to plan. Those of you that came along anyway managed to polish off quite a few sandwiches and cakes, and rest assured the leftovers are being carefully looked after by Rodger!

We had two big local races this month, with the Essex 20 and Colchester Half Marathon. Vicky, Eileen, Chusa, Jennifer and Karen represented the ladies at Essex 20, putting in strong performances and gaining personal bests. Vicky and Eileen, both currently training for London were 16th and 30th ladies overall, both gaining places on the GBRC all-time top ten list for the distance as well as clocking PBs. Eileen also took the bronze Essex place in her age group.

The following weekend we had Colchester half marathon, where a stonking 27 of you took part. I watched from the bottom of East Hill, and it was great seeing all those runners streaming down the hill, looking out for the Blue Vests and laughing at the car drivers trying (and failing) to turn right out of Brook Street! Once again, you all pulled out the stops and ran terrific races, with lots of you getting PBs and smashing your target times. A special mention goes to Louise Reeve, who ran her first ever half marathon in training for the London marathon, where she is raising money for WellChild. Helene Tyler also deserves a mention, as she knocked 7 minutes off her PB, no mean feat on Colchester’s course. Debs Cubberley also PB’d at the Liverpool half, which she did the day after competing in the Liverpool Parkrun.

Claire Groves ran a brilliant race at the Cranleigh 15, her first race at this distance, finishing in a great time of 2:11:43, and placing 69th out of 472 runners.

Sandra James is edging closer to a sub 30 5k, as she ran PBs 2 weeks running, getting 31:36 at Harwich, followed by 30:58 the next week.

Meera had a very busy Easter weekend, taking part in the Easter Eggstravaganza, a 4 day event. Only a few ran all 4 days, and our Meera was one of them, racing 13.3, 7.6, 6.8 and 6.5 miles over the four days. I see she managed to get someone else to write the race report for her after that!

On to the runner of the month; I have agonised over this a bit, but don’t really feel I can give it to anyone else. In fact, if any other runner had done what this lady has, I would have no hesitation. It’s only that she will want someone else to have it, and I will now be in her bad books for giving it to her. However, in the month of March she has become the club’s all time fastest lady over 20 miles, taking 7 minutes off her PB. She also became the second fastest GBRC lady over the half marathon distance, again gaining a PB to do this. Her running is going from strength to strength, and I can’t wait to see what she does over the rest of the year. Plus, she has been a brilliant ladies captain for the last 2 years. Vicky Presland, you are my first runner of the month. Sorry! I promise to ignore you for the rest of the year! Michael agrees with me, by the way!

I feel like I have rambled on a bit, and there are lots of you I would have liked to mention. However, the rest of the year is still ahead of us, and the road racing season is getting into full swing with all the spring marathons coming up, plus Ekiden, Mickey Edwards and not forgetting the Friday Five series in the summer.

If I can help anyone with anything, please don’t hesitate to ask, I am almost always at training on Fridays and Sundays. I am aiming to get along to a few Mondays and Wednesdays when I can too. Feel free to email and Facebook as well.